


Star Ship

by orphan_account



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-26 17:28:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21922135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Bulma finds a star map and builds a rocket ship to explore space and search for the planet Namek. Along the way she runs into a Saiyan Prince who happens to be stranded on a planet in neutral space. Can Bulma convince him to help her on her journey in exchange for helping repair his ship?
Relationships: Bulma Briefs/Vegeta
Comments: 8
Kudos: 31





	1. Prologue

“Hey Dad, what is this?”

“Yes dear?” The older man mumbled under his breath, a cigarette hung between his lips and his eyes were focused on the spreadsheets scattered on the table before him.

Bulma had been helping her father clear some clutter in a unused room in his laboratory, to make room for some new equipment. While shifting through one of the unmarked boxes, Bulma found a rolled sheet of parchment paper with a chip tied around its center.

Bulma looked over her shoulder at her father, he was muttering to himself about the schematics that were currently holding his attention. Bulma _rolled_ her eyes and grabbed the roll of paper. Carefully she unwound the cord that held the chip in place. Bulma held the chip up to the light, and tilted her head in confusion. She was almost positive that it was a computer chip, but now…she just wast sure. There were markings engraved on the surface of the chip from a strange looking language. The input prongs didn’t look compatible with any computer port that Bulma was aware of.

Bulma unraveled the scroll hoping to find the answers inside but what she found had stumped her even more so than before. There were more of the same markings along each border of the sheet. In the center was a painting of a great green dragon, which held 7 orange orbs. Each orb was associated with a number of red stars. Bulma noticed a signature at the bottom right hand corner, and it was the only word she could make out on the entire sheet, ‘ _Piccolo_ ’.

“Honey? Just what are you doing?” Bulma spread the sheet over her fathers work and held the chip in-front of his face.

“What.is.this?”

Her father let out a breath of smoke, and crushed the butt if his spent cigarette in the ashtray on the table. Dr. Briefs looked back and forth from the chip to the picture several times.

He stroked his mustache, “Hm, ah yes I remember. An old colleague of mine gave those to me.”

“…okay, but what is it?”

“Ah yes, he said that on that chip held a map.”

“A map?”

Dr. Briefs nodded and continued to stoke his mustache, trying to recall on the conversation he had so many years ago. “According to my colleague, there is a map on that chip that will lead you through the galaxy to a far off world called Namek.”

Bulma clutched the chip in one hand and let her fingers glide over the picture of the dragon. “But what about this, this was with the map.”

“Ah yes, according to an ancient Namekian legend, if you collect all seven of these orbs, a great mystical dragon will appear and grant you a wish.”

Bulma quirked a brow, “Do you really believe in all that mumbo jumbo dad?”

“Who knows dear. But it would be exciting to find out.” He gave his daughter a wink before shooing the painting off of the table to continue his work. Bulma grabbed the painting and with the chip in hand, she headed up to her room.

With a huff, Bulma allowed herself to fall back on her plush mattress and held the chip of in front of her at arms reach. _Namek huh?_


	2. Chapter One

Three years. Three _long_ years it took Bulma to figure out how to access the map that was encoded on the chip. There were many all nighters and Bulma is ashamed to admit the amounts of coffee she consumed those late nights. At one point she got so frustrated with having to pour herself a cup of coffee, she decided to just drink it straight from the pot. There was also a lot of crying, _so_. _much_. _crying_.

When Bulma would actually try lay down and get some actual sleep, she would just end up screaming into her pillow at night at the overwhelming frustration of this project. No one forced her to do this, but Bulmas curious mind would not let this go unfinished.

The planning and science that went behind constructing this ship took about as long as figuring out how to view the map. Her father and another group of scientists already had the bare bones of a spacecraft built. It should be ready for travel within a year or so she hoped. Bulma felt her stomach drop, _was she ready for this?_ For the past few years, her main focus was creating a computer that could read the information on that chip and she finally did. Now, her journey was about to really begin and venturing out into the vast expanse of space suddenly felt so intimidating.

Bulma is always up and ready for a challenge, but this? Something like this had never been done before. There was no guarantee about any of this. The people of earth have traveled in space, but not to this extent. There is no telling who or what Bulma would encounter out there.

_Deep breaths Bulma, deep breaths_.

At times Bulma had to remind herself to breathe. Her and her father went over everything _extensively_. They couldn’t prepare her for everything, but they did the best they could.

Currently, Bulma was downloading the map to a handheld device, along with various other backup systems that would be later installed in the finished ship. Bulma ran her hands over her face and rubbed her tired eyes. She leaned back in her computer chair and kicked herself in a circle. Her mind was a scattered mess these days. There was no proof that this is an accurate map, no proof that the planet ‘Namek’ actually exists and there is no way in _hell_ seven magical balls are scattered across its surface.

Yet Bulma felt like she was in too deep to call it quits. She had already spent so much time, money and resources to just up and stop this project. This wasn’t just a fun little exploration trip to like she had originally thought it would be all those years ago. No, this turned into something so much more. Not only will Bulma try to find Namek, but she has also been tasked to discover, map and gather data about other worlds that could or currently housing life.

The traveling isn’t what worried and kept Bulma up at night. It’s if she found other life forms what would she do? What would happen? Do they speak the same language? Do they resemble humans? Do they think like we do? Are their habits similar to ours? Are they friend or foe? Earth, from what Bulma knows, has never had contact with other intergalactic species. Unfortunately there’s no guide book about how to cross the universe and what to expect. And Bulma isn’t naive enough to not go out in space without some heavy artillery.

The computer monitor beeping brought Bulma out of thought. _Download Complete_ was blinking on the screen. Bulma unplugged her handheld from the computer, shoved it in the deep pocket of her coveralls and headed down towards her fathers main lab.

Dr. Briefs was clacking away on his computer keyboard; Bulma watched from over his shoulder.

“Whatcha got there dad?”

“I scanned that painting and ran the strips of text through the data base and nothing. Nothing comes back! It’s not even similar to any of the languages on earth.”

“What if it’s Namekian?”

“Hm, I suppose it could be. Very fascinating.”

Bulma chuckled and shook her head, “So how is the ship coming along?”

“Very well actually, we’re ahead of schedule. I even had some spare time to whip you up a design for a spacesuit, you’re more than welcome to give it a look over and make any changes of course.” Dr.Briefs handed Bulma the blueprints.

Bulma shifted through the prints, going over her fathers work. He truly was brilliant, to come up with something like this in his spare time, Bulma was lucky to have someone like her father in her life. Not only did they share a similar mind, but they shared similar passions for inventing and discovery.

“These look great dad! A few cosmetic things I’d change, other than that, simply brilliant.”

“Go ahead and work on those dear, we’ll have you taking off here in no time.”

“…yep, in no time,” the pit in Bulmas stomach returned.

_Breathe_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys so much for reading and taking interest in my work.


	3. Chapter Two

Bulma leaned against a large observation window in her ship and watched as millions of twinkling stars whizzed by. She had been traveling through space for about three months now. Communications to earth stopped working after the first week or so. Bulma assumed she was too far out to get a good signal.

Bulma felt so alone. Well she _was_ alone, the video calls to her family had helped; but now those are gone...

To busy herself, she did daily maintenance checks on the entire ship. Which that became so routine it only took her a few hours. Bulma had pre-downloaded all of her favorite movies, but now those had all been watched one too many times. Her mother packed Bulma a years worth of gossip magazine's, and she read them all within a few days. To say the least, she was getting a little antsy. So much so, that she even tried to teach herself yoga.

Space really was so empty. You could travel hundreds of thousands of miles in any direction and not see anything. 

_Wait._

Bulma rubbed her eyes and gave her cheeks a quick slap. She had got to be hallucinating. Out in the darkness Bulma could see blue and red flashing lights. And these lights were speeding right towards her.

_What the hell?_

Bulmas heart was racing. She tried to come up with a logical reason as to _why_ there would be such an anomaly, but couldn’t.

The lights kept coming closer and _closer._ Bulma watched as it grew near, and she could finally see it was a cherry red cruiser. She could only stare wide eyed as it flew toward her ship, nearly hitting her! It swooped down just at the last second before impact. Bulma sprinted towards the other side of the ship, where there was another large window. It was gone.

She really _must_ be seeing things.

Well, that’s what she thought until she nearly fell over as something bumped upwards into the hull of her ship. From underneath the floor, Bulma could hear a bunch of _clinks_ and _clanks_ followed by the roaring sound of suction.

Bulma ran for her room, she had a trunk in there that was tucked away for _emergencies_. With the cabin door shut and barricaded (she pushed her dresser up against the door), Bulma pulled the trunk out from underneath her cot and rummaged around until she felt the cold steel of her plasma blaster.

There wasn’t a very good hiding spot in her room, she had to settle for underneath the desk that was nestled away in a dark nook near the bathroom. Bulma could hear the creaking of the hatch that was just outside of her room. Bulma held the gun with shaky hands as she pointed the barrel towards the door. Her body trembled with fear and she had to prop her arms on the seat of the desk chair to help steady her aim.

_Bam!_

The hatch had been flung open making Bulma jump, she nearly dropped her blaster and hit the crown of her head on the underside of the desk.

" _Dammit!_ " Bulma cursed under her breath. She quickly covered her mouth with one hand as she realized her mistake.

Bulma could hear the echoing of footsteps approach her door. Her hands started to sweat and her knuckles turned white as she gripped her blaster. 

Then a knock came from her cabin door and a nervous voice asked,"Uhh... Hello? Anyone in there?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I’m hoping to get another chapter out tomorrow or by the end of the week.


	4. Chapter Three

Then a knock came from her cabin door and a nervous voice asked,"Uhh... Hello? Anyone in there?"

…

The voice startled Bulma, she yelped and accidentally pressed the trigger, firing a shot at the door blasting a large hole straight through.

“Hey! Watch where you’re shooting that thing! You nearly blew my head off!”

“S-sorry!” She called out, her voice jittery.

Wait a minute. Why was _she_ apologizing, they were trespassing on her ship! Bulma crawled out from underneath the desk.

“Listen here buddy, you’re on my ship! I can very well shoot wherever or whoever I want!”

“Well that’s true I guess…but I’m a Galatic Patrolman. Shoot me and you’ll be hauled off to prison. It’s a serious offense ya’ know.”

Bulma peered out of the hole that she shot through the door. What she saw was a petite humanoid like being with large bright bug eyes and purple skin. His hands were rested on his hips and was currently glaring at her.

“You’re a _what_?”

“ _Galatic_. _Patrolman_. Jeez what mud-ball are you from, that you don’t even know about the Galatic Patrol?”

Bulma pushed the dresser back in its place against the wall and opened her cabin door. _Well what was left of it._

“I’m from Earth. What’s the Galatic Patrol anyways? Are you like a space cop?”

He shrugged his shoulders, “Basically. Each Patrolman is assigned to a different quadrant in this galaxy and are in charge of keeping the peace. I am Patrolman Jaco, Earth falls in my jurisdiction.”

Bulma was flabbergasted. _Wow, who knew?_

Jaco held out his hand, “Alright Earthling, hand over your papers?”

“Bulma.”

“…What are you saying? Is that some sort of Earth slang?”

“No jackass, it’s my name. _B-u-l-m-a_. And papers? What papers? Like, license and registration?” Bulma snorted. _How ridiculous would it be to get pulled over in space?_

Jaco stretched his hand a little more towards Bulma and nodded, “Hand ‘em over.”

 _You have got to be kidding me_.

Bulma scratched her cheek and laughed nervously, “What if I told you I didn’t have either of those?”

“Aright, hands behind your back _Bulma_.”

“What! You have got to be fucking kidding me. Nuh-uh, no way. You listen here mister,” Bulma walked closer to Jaco. She had to lean slightly to get on his level.

She poked him in the chest, “You can’t arrest me for being uneducated about space travel! If you payed attention to anything in your ‘jurisdiction’, you would know no one from earth travels this far into space. How would we know you actually need a license for that kind of thing!”

Jaco pressed a button on his communicator that was fastened to his ear, “Uh yea, I’m gonna need back up with this one.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I apologize for the short chapter, sometimes they are just easier to write. I hope you enjoy it nonetheless. Have a Happy New Year!


End file.
